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Monday, November 21, 2011

Breakfast #50: Multigrain Pancakes

Who doesn’t love weekends? Long stretches of time (well, in truth, never
long enough!) to fill up as we please – spending time with friends and family, staying
out late, sleeping in, morning cuddles with no time limit, 3-hour lunches with
wine, impromptu jaunts, dressing up, dressing down, naps! You time and your rules.

If you are a Monday to Friday worker bee like I am, you
enjoy it even more.

One of my favorite things about the weekend (although I
would really be hard pressed to pick only one favorite) are long lazy
breakfasts that don’t need to be on the table in 10 minutes or less –
breakfasts during which the whole family can sit together and enjoy each
other’s company without having to rush off to work. During the week, we are hardly able to have breakfasts
together – C is usually rushing out the door to work, little C has breakfast earlier,
and I put together something quick that I can eat in front of my computer
(shock! I know…I’m a real person, I eat
in front of my computer!) as I get started on my workday. Not the ideal situation, but that’s life, and
we’re working on it :)

So anyway…thank goodness for the weekends! And there is nothing that says weekend
breakfasts quite like pancakes.

- Whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and
salt in a large bowl. I always use a
whisk when mixing dry ingredients because I feel like I am mixing and sifting
at the same time.

- In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and
eggs, add the melted butter and whisk again until everything is evenly
combined.

- Heat a skillet (or griddle if you have one…I don’t, but
maybe someday!), add a sliver of butter and brush across the surface. Make sure the pan is hot – Heidi says if a
drop of water dances across the skillet then you are good to go!

- While the skillet is heating, pour the wet ingredients
into the dry while gently stirring until just combined. Do not over-stir.

- When the pan is hot pour some batter on the pan. You can make small pancakes or large
ones...your choice. Cook until the
bottoms are golden and the edges as toasty then flip the pancakes and cook
until the other side is golden as well and the pancakes are cooked through.

- Repeat with the remaining batter, or cook just the
amount you want and store the rest in the fridge. Serve with butter and maple syrup, or any
syrup you like, or fruits, or compote, or vanilla bean ice cream!

Heidi’s original recipe calls from whole wheat, oat, and
rye flours. I only had whole wheat pastry flour
on hand so that is what I used, combined with regular all-purpose. I also used dark muscovado sugar for the simple
reason that I love it. Another bonus
with our local muscovado, especially when you get it sourced directly from the
producers with little refinement, is that it is shot through with lumps of clumped
up sugar. Hard nuggets of dusky sweetness
that can vex a cake batter (I need to whiz the muscovado if I’m to use it for a
cake) but are nice surprises when dotting your pancake.

These pancakes are a far cry from those you get from a
packaged mix. It is much less sweet with
a slight tang from the buttermilk and an earthy taste from the whole wheat. The pancakes themselves are as
surprisingly light as Heidi promises and are perfect with any and all manner of
sweet toppings, never reaching a too-cloying state the packaged-mix pancakes
can sometimes get when drenched in syrup.

Heidi shares that the batter keeps for days in the
fridge, and you know what that means – your weekend breakfast can easily turn
into a weekday treat. Hope your weekend was
filled with only good things – great people, fun times, and pancakes! Have a great week ahead! :)

21 comments:

The last time I ate a pancake was when my relatives from dallas gave us boxes of buttermilk pancake mix. i didn't like it at all! hahaha since then I just order pancakes from jollibee or mcdo if i'm craving for it. but this recipe looks nice. is it possible to use only all purpose for this?

I just happened to find your blog. I can eat breakfast for every meal! Pancakes are my favorirte. I must confess, I had the prepackaged frozen Walmart pancakes this morning. I know, cheating. More like lazy!I think tomorrow morning I'll treat everyone to this recipe! Thanks!